Get Sucked in by the Siren Call of the Sea in Kat Rosenfield’s “Inland”

Half psychological thriller and half fantasy novel, Kat Rosenfield’s Inland revolves around a young girl named Calypso “Callie” Morgan who can’t seem to escape the siren call of the sea. Forced to stay on land her entire life, a twist of fate brings Callie face-to-face with the sea, and suddenly, its siren call taunts her. Her health issues miraculously disappear, she looses weight, and finds herself in a relationship. Despite her sudden stroke of luck, Morgan’s coming-of-age story is tainted by the sea’s dark hold on her and every member of her family.

Rosenfield expertly weaves in the mythology on mermaids and selkies to create a thriller where the reader isn’t quite sure whether Morgan is undergoing a transformation or if it’s all in her head and she’s a budding psychopath. Either way, the twisted relationship Morgan and her relatives have with the sea is borderline emotionally abusive–they can’t escape its siren call, no matter how hard they try. While they seem to be happier when living near the ocean, its murky depths hold a dark curse that means most of the Morgans will never have a happy ending.

With a deft hand, Rosenfield takes what could be a cutesy mermaid story and transforms it into a chilling tale that lets her readers decide if her heroine is truly an otherworldy creature or a twisted psychopath.